A crowdfunding campain on indiegogo launched yesterday to fund the first ever Doctor Who convention held in Germany. At the same time the website to the event went online. The organisers previously only communicated via Facebook to the fans.

The event will take place in Kassel, on 24th to 25th October 2015. Guests announced so far are:

• Catrin Stewart ("Jenny Flint")
• Nicola Bryant ("Peri Brown")
• Terry Molloy ("Davros")
• Toby Hadoke (Actor, Comedian, Podcaster for Big Finish)
• Jason Haigh-Ellery (Co-executive producer of Big Finish)
• Terrance Dicks (Writer, Script-editor)
• Andrew Cartmel (Writer, Script-editor)

Other guests include german dubbing-actors and -producers. According to the organisers of TimeLash, there are still more guests to be added to the line-up in the coming weeks.

Tickets are available on indiegogo. Since the launch of the campaign yesterday, the convention already achieved 40% of its goal and sold 112 weekend-tickets out of 500 available. The campaign on indiegogo runs for 60 days.

Monday marks the 50th Anniversary of the first screening of Doctor Who in Australia.

Although New Zealand first saw the series in September 1964, the series didn't reach Australia until 1965. The series had been purchased from the BBC in March 1964 and initially planned for premiere in May. However the Australian Film Censorship Board (AFCB) classified the series' first thirteen episodes 'A', meaning they were only suitable for an adult audience, thus preventing the ABC from showing the series in the 6:30pm Sunday timeslot they'd intended to use.

The series was therefore first screened in Perth, capital of Western Australia, by ABC station, ABW-2 on Tuesday 12 January 1965.

It was the days before satellite links, so the 16mm film print of the story had to be flown around the country for broadcasts to the different states. Sydney was the second city to screen the series, three days later on January 15th along with various New South Wales Country stations and the Australian Capital Territory. This was followed by screenings on 22nd January for Brisbane and Toowoomba in Queensland. The series reached Victoria on 20th February when Melbourne and various Victorian country stations screened the series. On the 4th March it was back in Queensland in Townsville before flying South to Adelaide where it was screened on 15th March. On the 18th March it was transmitted from Rockhampton before crossing the Bass Strait for broadcast on 11th June to viewers in Hobart and Launceston.

Many ABC stations had not been opened by January 1965, 10 opened in 1965 and a further 14 in 1966. The staggered launch dates of the stations that opened after 1965 meant that viewers in the country were introduced to Doctor Who well into the run, and often part way through a story. Some areas did not even have an ABC transmitter, so missed out altogether.

Final figures now confirm that Doctor Who: Last Christmas finished as the 7th most watched programme on British Television for the Week.

The episode, which has 8.28 million watching, had a share of 31.6% of the total TV audience.

The Boxing Day repeat on BBC Three had a final audience of 0.48 million viewers, a share of 2% of the total audience. It had an AI of 84.

SPACE have reported that the Christmas Special Last Christmas not only ranked as the channel's most popular show over Christmas, but also the highest ranked programme on the channel so far this broadcast year.

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine is published this week, and features an interview with Jenna Coleman, during which she discusses the loves and lives of Clara Oswald:

Also inside this issue:

• Rachel Talalay, director of the 2014 series finale two-part finale, reveals the secrets of how Death in Heaven was brought to the screen.
• Peter Purves, who starred as companion Steven Taylor in the 1960s, talks in-depth about his time on Doctor Who.
• Discover fascinating new facts about the acclaimed seventh Doctor story The Greatest Show in Galaxy in The Fact of Fiction.
• Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat answers readers’ questions – including the knotty problem of the Doctor's many wives! – in his exclusive column.
• Writer David Fisher, who wrote three memorable stories for the fourth Doctor in the 1970s, revisits his work.
• The Doctor and Clara face Sontarans and Nazis as The Instruments of War continues, a brand-new comic strip written and illustrated by Mike Collins.
• Sarah Jane and the Brigadier are reunited, as the Time Team watch The Sarah Jane Adventures: Enemy of the Bane.
• Jaqueline Rayner wonders how the Doctor's companions would get on in the Cubs in Relative Dimensions.
• Last Christmas is put under the spotlight in The DWM Review.
• The Watcher considers the many surprising ways that Doctor Who stories can change from script to screen in Wotcha!.
• The Watcher gives the answers to his Fiendishly Festive Christmas Quiz! How well did you do?
• Have your say on Peter Capaldi’s first series as the Doctor in the DWM Season Survey.

Plus the DWM Crossword, prize-winning competitions, and much more!

Doctor Who finished Christmas Day as the Sixth most watched programme on British television for the day.

Final figures, which include those who record the programme and watch within seven days, give Last Christmas a final rating of 8.28 million viewers. The rating is down from the 11.14 million achieved the previous year when The Time of the Doctor saw the departure of the Eleventh Doctor. Ratings across the board are down with no programme reaching ten million viewers in the whole Christmas week. Top of the list was Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special which had 9.7 million watching, down from 11.52 million last year.

The final figures don't include those watching on iPlayer where Doctor Who had 1.06 million requests during Christmas week. Overall it was the 9th most requested programme, losing the title of Most requested programme over Christmas, a title it has held since the iPlayer was introduced. Top Gear topped the list this year, airing the controversial episodes filmed in Patagonia.

Victoria Jaye, Head of TV Content for BBC iPlayer has posted a blog praising the success of the iPlayerDoctor Who's finished between 6th and 8th for the week. Final figures will be confirmed later in the week when full ITV HD and +1 figures are released.

Doctor Who has been nominated for Best Drama in the final round of the 2015 National Television Awards.

The show is up against its fellow Cardiff produced rival Sherlock as well as period stalwart Downton Abbey and the Cilla Black bio-pic Cilla.

The star of Cilla, former Big Finish actress Sheridan Smith has been nominated for Best Drama Performance, however no actors from Doctor Who made the shortlist this year.

Votes can be cast by the public until midday on Wednesday 21st January via this link. The awards ceremony will take place at the 02 in London later the same day, being broadcast live on ITV from 7.30pm.

Doctor Who won the award for Best Drama in 2014, regaining a title it held from 2005-2010.

BBC America have revealed that Doctor Who had its highest rated season ever on the channel, finishing with the Christmas Special which delivered over 2.3 million total Viewers and was the  number 1 non-sports telecast in all of cable during the time period among Adults 25-54 in Live+3.

The special, Last Christmas, had a total of 2.616 million Viewers in Live+3 when combining the 9:00pm premiere with the 11:45pm and 2:30am replays. The Twelfth Doctor’s first Christmas special more than doubled the viewership of the Eleventh Doctor’s first Christmas special, A Christmas Carol in 2010.

BBC AMERICA was the #1 network on Twitter and Tumblr and Doctor Who: Last Christmas was the #1 show on both platforms in all of television in Primetime (excluding sports) on December 25. Doctor Who is pacing as one of Twitter’s top 10 most-tweeted original dramas in all of cable for 2014.

Peter Capaldi’s first season as the Doctor, with co-star Jenna Coleman as Clara, delivered BBC AMERICA its highest rated season ever with an average of 2.035 million Total Viewers in Live+3.

Doctor Who: Last Christmas arrives on Blu-ray and DVD in the US on February 17, 2015 and Doctor Who: The Complete Eighth Series is available now.

Doctor Who director Fiona Cumming has died at the age of 77

Fiona Cumming had a long and illustrious career, working on over 34 episodes of the original Doctor Who series.

She began as an actress, working at the Royal Scottish Academy before going on to a variety of theatre and television work, including a spell at Border Television in the dual role of announcer and features interviewer. She appeared in Dr. Finlay's Casebook and Suspense.

Deciding that she would prefer production work, in 1964 gained a post as an assistant floor manager at the BBC. She first worked on Doctor Who on the season three story The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve.

By 1966 she had won promotion to the role of Production Assistant and in this capacity she worked on the second Doctor story The Highlanders, Patrick Troughton's second story and the one which saw the introduction of the character Jamie. She worked alongside the second Doctor again in 1969 on The Seeds of Death. In 1972 she worked with Jon Pertwee on the story The Mutants.

In 1974 she become a BBC Staff Director and in the 1980's she was asked to direct four stories featuring the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. She directed his first story Castrovalva as well as the Mara sequel Snakedance, Enlightenment and the story which saw the introduction of Peri and the departure of Turlough, Planet of Fire. In 1988 she made an uncredited cameo appearance as a tourist at Windsor Castle in the 25th anniversary story Silver Nemesis.

Other productions on which she worked included two episodes of Blakes 7, Sarcophagus and Rumours of Death, as well as Emmerdale, The Walls of Jericho, God's Wonderful Railway, The Omega Factor, Play for Today, Angels, Jackanory Playhouse, Z Cars and the ill fated Eldorado.

After leaving the BBC she remained active as a freelance director while also pursuing a number of other projects, including some with John Nathan-Turner in their Teynham Productions organisation.

Fiona Cumming died on the 1st January.

The Big Finish range of special offers over Christmas is reaching its end, and for the twelfth day they have the complete 50th Anniversary audio anthology Destiny of the Doctor available for download for the next couple of days at the discounted price of £2.99 each or £30 for the set.


You can find full details about the offer from the Big Finish website.